Deputy Marketing and Relations Deputy of the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) of Iran Mir Aboutaleb Badri said “in the 9 month period, a total of 145 commercial, economic and investment delegations consisting of 3763 people from 48 countries travelled to Iran, among which, 71 delegations with 2640 members from Europe and America, 41 delegations with 702 memebers from Asia and the Pacific as well as 34 delegations with 421 members from African and Arabic countries entered the country."
“Meanwhile, the largest number of visits belongs to the Germans who deployed 12 delegations followed by Iraq with 11 delegations , Japan 8, China 7, Lebanon and Oman, 6 each, Italy, Turkey, Serbia and Venezuela 5 each, Britain, South Africa, Kazakhstan and India 4 each, Russia, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Brazil, South Korea, Poland, Thailand and the Czech Republic 3 each, Pakistan, Switzerland, France, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Tunisia 2 each as well as Belgium, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Croatia, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Armenia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, Ukraine, Uganda and Spain each with one delegation," he noted.
The official further referred to the population of delegations dispatched to Iran asserting “the 360-member Italian delegation marked the largest group deployed to Iran during the first nine months of the current Iranian year.”
“The second largest group was Austria’s 300-member delegation followed by Russia’s with 150 members, South Africa's with 150, Hungary's with 130, Poland's with 100 and 110 members on two different occasions as well as Germany's with a group of 100 people,” he added.
Badri maintained that 59 delegations visited Iran at the invitation of Trade Promotion Organization, 37 groups were invited by Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade while 22 other delegation visited the country at the official invitation of Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
The TPO official further pointed out the number of B2B meetings between companies and businessmen of the two sides; “a total of 43 conferences were conducted for the visiting delegations in the period.”
He went on to enumerate the aims pursued by the foreign delegations visiting the country including finding partners for joint ventures and technology transfer, holding conferences and conducting face-to-face meetings, buying raw materials from Iran, local market sales with third-party countries (neighboring countries), purchasing especial goods from Iran like nuts, leather, petrochemicals and steel as well as signing various MoUs at ministerial or deputy ministerial levels.
“Other reasons for the trip of foreign delegations to Iran included preparations for holding joint meetings, visiting international or specialized exhibitions, visiting provinces for investigating the market, finding local partner for distribution of foreign goods, establishing sales agencies, direct sales in the domestic market, estimating the market as well as finding out about business rules, regulations and tariffs,” Badri concluded.
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